


at least it's still you and me

by Ahtai



Category: Cyberpunk 2077 (Video Game)
Genre: Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:01:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28265094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ahtai/pseuds/Ahtai
Summary: SPOILERS FOR MAJOR QUESTLINESAn AU where Jackie lives, thanks to the biochip.
Relationships: Male V & Jackie Welles, V & Jackie Welles
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	at least it's still you and me

**Author's Note:**

> I always wondered if the biochip wasn't passed off onto V, would Jackie still be alive and host to Johnny? My answer here is yes.

“I’m going to take his body.” V tells Delamain, and reaches over in an attempt to pick Jackie’s body up.

The adrenaline from the heist and subsequent car chase was starting to wear off, and he’s starting to become dully aware of the injuries he had sustained during the whole ordeal. Still, he can’t just abandon Jackie’s body and go meet Dex like this, it just wouldn’t be right.

“I highly advise against that,” Delamain starts, but V just shuts the droning of the AI out as he fumbles with the handle of the door and clumsily drags the body out of the car, trying his best not to drop Jackie.

“Thanks for the ride, Delamain.” He grunts, positioning the body in a way such that it looks like he’s supporting a very, very drunk friend to anyone not looking closely. The car thanks him and shuts its door before driving off.

Now what? He’s here because they were supposed to meet Dexter DeShawn after a successful heist and get their money, but things obviously did not go as planned- The question about whether or not he gets paid for the botched job floats to mind.

Fuck Dex. He looks up at the No-tell Motel and decides that today has gone quite terribly, and he’s in no mood to deal with that fat fuck. V may not be the best at grasping people, but he has a feeling the fixer won’t be very generous about what happened during the heist no matter how hard he tries to explain himself. Sure, they (he) has the biochip they set out to steal, but man, it feels so wrong to just… Take it from Jackie’s body like that. 

No way is he doing that. He can do without the money.

V realizes that he’s shaking as he slowly hauls Jackie’s body to his own apartment. His mind is spinning, and he doesn’t know what he’s doing. 

This is such a bad idea. 

He wanted to bury him, but  _ that _ didn’t feel right either. Belatedly, he realizes he should’ve just let Delamain take care of the body, maybe asked the AI nicely to bring Jackie back to his family. His throat dries at the thought of having to face Mama Welles, having to bring her son’s dead body to her and explain how it happened. 

He  _ really _ doesn’t want to think about that, so he pushes the thoughts away the best he can. It’s something future V can deal with.

Somehow, he reaches his apartment without a hitch, which says a lot about the state of Night City.

He lays Jackie’s body down on his couch, carefully. That way he can kind of still pretend that he’s alive, just blackout drunk, and that he’ll wake up the next morning and they’ll go get breakfast, hungover, at El Coyote Cojo.

He drifts off to sleep, praying that when he wakes up, the whole world would have changed.

\---------

V jolts awake to the sound of rustling.

His first thought is that someone’s in his apartment, and that he’s being robbed.

He hears glass shattering from the direction of the couch and table, and thinks that this robber must be extremely inexperienced- But far be it for him to critique anyone’s skills in breaking and entering after the earlier fiasco.

He rises from his bed, but sees no suspicious figure, which is strange because there really aren’t that many places to hide in his tiny apartment. 

“Hello?” He whispers into the dark room, and the dark room replies with an extended groan. “Who’s there?” Maybe it’s a bit naive of him to expect an answer, but he tries anyway.

A few seconds pass and he receives no coherent response. He hasn’t been attacked either, which really just adds to the confusion. His sleep addled brain directs him towards the couch and his feet follow, and what he sees makes him scramble towards his destination at top speed.

It’s Jackie,  _ moving _ , his hand outstretched towards the table, grasping at air.

“What the fuck?” V almost shouts, which makes Jackie, who is moving and alive?, wince. He can’t really wrap his mind around the situation, because he’s almost certain that the man was dead in the cab. Delamain had confirmed it, he had dragged what was certainly a lifeless body across half of Watson.

And yet, Jackie is in front of his eyes, breathing, living,  _ alive _ .

“Jackie? Can you hear me?” He hesitates to place his hands on the other, afraid that he’s some sort of mirage, a hallucination, and that once he rests his hands on him he’ll turn back into a lifeless body, pale and cold to the touch. If this is a dream, he wouldn’t mind dreaming forever.

“V…” Jackie returns, breathless and struggling, snapping him out of his daze. “V… What’s going on?”

“Are you… Are you alive?” Lame question, he realizes, because what kind of answer would he be returned with? Yes? No? Maybe? He wouldn’t know what to do either way. Again, he finds himself at a complete loss. Is this real? Is this a dream?

Jackie’s hand finds and bats at him, grabbing his arm tight.

So, not a dream, maybe? But he’s been subjected to some pretty vivid dreams in the past.

“Dunno… I remember…” Jackie trails off there and V doesn’t blame him. He thinks he’d have trouble coping with remembering fading away but still, somehow, being alive.

“Okay, okay.” He takes a deep breath, placing his hand on top of Jackie’s. For someone who has just revived, his grip is strong, and V thinks he might have a bruise there by morning. “I’m… I’m gonna call… I’m gonna call Vik, yeah. He’ll know what’s going on, I think.”

Viktor Vector is going to hate him for calling in the middle of the night, but this is urgent. It takes a few rings, but the ripperdoc picks up eventually.

“There better be a good reason for calling me this late.” Viktor grumbles.

“Yeah, Vik, Jackie… Jackie’s in some trouble.” He speaks quickly, afraid that the man is going to hang up on him, although it looks like the ripperdoc is a bit more attentive after hearing his frantic tone. “Can I bring him in? He needs medical attention. It’s urgent.”

“Sure, bring him in, can’t say no to that.” The ripperdoc waves his hand, and the call ends.

V looks down at Jackie, and reaches out to grab him. He’s solid, warm, so different to what he had dragged back home hours ago.

“Hang in there, Jackie, you’re gonna be okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! You can find me on twitter [@renmantai](https://twitter.com/renmantai), although I mostly draw there instead of post about fics.
> 
> Hopefully I feel inspired enough in the future to continue this in a meaningful way that isn't basically just copying the entire storyline.


End file.
